Versus Saxton Hale
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| “ | What is VS Saxton Hale? It's in the name! You fight Saxton Hale! Or you play as Saxton Hale and fight the Mercenaries. Are you ready to face 23 enemies at once? ‘Cause they surely aren’t ready to face you!
— Publicity Blurb
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VS Saxton Hale is a community-created game mode added in the Summer 2023 update with the July 12, 2023 Patch. It features Saxton Hale as the BLU team against the mercenaries, who are now working for Gray Mann, as RED. This mode features two unique announcers, that being Saxton Hale for BLU and Gray Mann for RED, as well as several custom made voice lines exclusive to this mode.
This gamemode features 4 maps; VHS
At the beginning of a match, one player is selected to be Saxton Hale, while everyone else is a mercenary. Saxton Hale's mission is to kill all the mercenaries, while the mercenaries have to kill Saxton Hale. Both Saxton Hale and the mercenaries have a wide range of abilities in which they can use to combat each other. Each round has a timer. If the timer runs out, then the mercenaries win. Saxton Hale's health rises with the amount of mercenaries on the opposite team. His remaining health is visible near the top of the screen, and can be viewed by both teams.
Contents
Gameplay
One player is chosen at random to play as Saxton Hale and the rest of the players are assigned to RED team with one goal: kill Saxton Hale on behalf of their new boss Gray Mann. Hale has a large arsenal of abilities that he can use against the mercenaries. The mercenaries also have some abilites that they can use against Saxton Hale. Hale has 4 minutes to kill the mercs, if the time runs out RED wins by default.
Saxton Hale
As Saxton Hale, players have several different abilities to help take on the mercenaries. These abilities display most of their information on the HUD. A regular melee hit from Saxton does 195 damage and his health scales with the amount of players on RED he is fighting. Saxton Hale cannot heal.
Sweeping Charge
Saxton charges up his fist as he yells out in preparation for a rushing punch that knocks opponents away and slams them into walls for extra damage. The charge can be held for as long as desired, making Saxton's fist glow blue and freezing him in place, even while in the air. The charge attack can be used to send Saxton in any direction that he is facing, allowing him to reach high places if needed. Default key: R. The charge attack is on a 10 second cooldown and does 55% of the target's total HP and falls off with distance. The charge attack also deals damage to Engineer buildings every tick that it is active.
Saxton Punch!
Saxton starts a 30 second countdown from when he spawns, slowly charging up a devastating attack. When fully charged, this attack turns Saxton's left forearm bright red with critical hit sparks all over it. Saxton also gives an audio cue when the attack is ready, alerting the mercenaries. Upon striking an enemy with Saxton fist, a shockwave is sent out, damaging every enemy around the target based on their proximity. Saxton Punch automatically applies to the next melee hit when available and does 326 damage before going on cooldown.
Mighty Slam
When Saxton becomes airborne, he has the ability to preform a ground pound, slamming himself back down to the ground with great force. This ability ignores knockback and is triggered by holding the crouch button (default key: Ctrl) while in the air. Upon hitting the ground, a big shockwave is sent out in every direction from the point of impact, and every merc close to the landing site takes damaged based on their distance from the point of impact. This ability is on a cooldown for 15 seconds.
Brave Jump
Similar to Scout, Saxton has the ability to perform a double jump. Useful as a general mobility tool, this ability launches Saxton forward and upward with no cooldown, only requiring the player to touch the ground to be performed again.
Mercenaries
As the mercenaries, players have a few abilities to aid in fending off Saxton. Most classes have voice lines specific to VS Saxton Hale, although not voiced by the official voice actors. These trigger automatically under certain conditions.
Wall climbing
Every mercenary has the ability to scale surfaces with the use of a melee attack. Upon striking a wall or floor, the player is launched upwards to reach advantageous positions with ease.[1]
Last Mann Standing
When there are 3 mercenaries left, all surviving players deal mini-crit damage. When there is 1 mercenary left, the last surviving mercenary deals full critical hits.[2]
Weapon changes
Some weapons have had slight changes:
- All Miniguns deal 40% less damage.[3]
- The Natascha has an 85% reduced chance of triggering the slowdown-on-hit ability.[4]
- Melee weapons for all classes except the Spy deploy 25% faster[5] and have a 60% increased melee range in a 350 Hammer unit proximity between Hale and the player.[6]
- The Scottish Resistance's stickies feature a 20% damage penalty.[7]
- The Sticky Jumper and the Rocket Jumper have their bonus reserve ammo removed.[8][9]
- Backstabs and the Market Gardener (while rocket jumping) deal 2.5x increased damage.[10][11]
- Telefrags deal 2x more damage against Hale.[12]
- Shields provide a one-hit immunity against Hale's primary attack.[13]
- Demoman sword weapons provide added knockback.
- Medics have a 30% on-wearer damage resistance against Saxton Hale's attacks.[14]
- Medi guns provide a 2x ÜberCharge healing rate bonus if an Ubersaw is equipped.[15]
- The Mad Milk has a 50% increased recharge rate.[16]
- Weapons and cosmetics utilizing Pyrovision are forcibly disabled in order to prevent Saxton Hale from playing Heavy voice lines.[17]
- On-kill effects are now triggered by hitting Saxton Hale.
Strategy
Maps
VS Saxton Hale maps carry the vsh_ prefix; community maps are identified with an italic font.
Update history
July 12, 2023 Patch #1 (Summer 2023)
- Added maps: VSH Distillery, VSH Nucleus, VSH Skirmish, and VSH Tiny Rock.
Gallery
- VSH Model Saxton Hale JI.png
Saxton Hale.
Sweeping Charge ability HUD icon.
Saxton Punch ability HUD icon.
Mighty Slam ability HUD icon.
.png)
References
- ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\melee_wall_climb.nut - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\last_mann_standing.nut:L16-23 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\heavy_minigun_nerf.nut:L25 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\heavy_natasha_nerf.nut:L25 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\melee_buffs.nut:L25 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\melee_buffs.nut:L40-50 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\demo_scottres_nerf.nut:L25 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\demo_jumper_ammo.nut:L24-28 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\soldier_jumper_ammo.nut:L24-28 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\spy_backstab.nut:L26-36 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\soldier_market_gardener.nut:L26-36 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\engie_telefrag_scaling.nut:L18-21 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\demo_shield.nut:L32-54 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\medic_resistance.nut:L25 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\medic_uber_rate.nut:L16-22, L34 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\scout_faster_milk.nut:L26 - ↑
scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\no_pyrovision.nut:L14-25; Hale is technically a Heavy with Voice Pitch shifted to 0. Pyrovision overrides that shift enabling Heavy's lines.
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